Printmaking

Sorry for the delay in posts, but I have a whole bunch for you today! It's been a busy two months, between preparing for my husband to deploy (a short one, no worries!!), finishing up my online class, various holidays, preparing to paint more for the Gyro Company, and preparing for summer camp (It's going to be so much fun this year, don't forget to check it out!).  But here we go...the first of 5 posts...

Printmaking!

This was a one day, and semi experimental lesson. I tried it out at home, and it worked great, however, if I do this lesson again, I will have MANY changes! (And that is perfectly okay; That is why we experiment, and why we reflect!)

We started by talking about printmaking. The older students knew some things about it, which was great.  In printmaking, the artist creates a matrix, which is an object that holds the design. This matrix can be made by engraving or etching into something such as metal or plastic or wood, or in our case Styrofoam, or by building layers and textures upon something, such as with cardboard.  There are other methods of printmaking that use stones, flat screens made of fabric, or even by putting ink directly onto a surface. Once the artist creates a matrix, they then cover it in ink and press it into paper or fabric. Printmaking, in most cases, allows the artist to make more than one copy of their original image, creating an edition. Artists usually sign each individual impression and write down the number out of how many are in that edition (like 1/500) so the purchaser knows what number they are getting and how many others there are like it.

For our printmaking, we used the centers of Styrofoam plates.  I had the students draw a design onto paper, and then they traced their image onto the plate, making sure to press hard with a dull pencil.  After that they put a small dot of paint on their plate and spread it around. Then they flipped it over onto paper and rubbed the back of the plate for a bit. Finally they peeled it off to reveal their design. They then had the option to create more and/or to cut out their print and mount it to another paper and decorate it.  The process was a little chaotic, so I had them print at one table and only allowed 6 to be at that table at one time. That way I could offer more attention to those printing.

Unfortunately, the prints didn't come out as good as I had hoped, but at least the students had fun!   Next time, I will use actual ink.  I didn't want to purchase it in this case, because we would most likely only have time to use it once, which means that spending the money on it wasn't really ideal for our budget.  I would also probably buy a pack of printing foam or see if I can get my hands on the Styrofoam meat trays that they have at supermarkets.